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Billionaires Who Think Small

Feb 19, 2018
by Caroline Miller
conspicuous consumption, DonaldTrump, James Atlas, Leonardo da Vinci, Paul Allen, Salvador Mundi, super-rich, The Optics of Success
2 Comments

Mohammed bin Salman courtesy of google.com

Using wealth to build monuments to oneself isn’t easy.  A person has to work to spend with panache, because bragging rights are becoming  competitive.  Recently, a Saudi Prince spent $450.3 million at Christie’s for Leonardo da Vinci’s, Salvador Mundi. (Click)  In this case, says writer James Atlas, the buyer did manage to take conspicuous consumption to a new height.  (“The Optics of Excess,” by James Atlas, Town&Country, March 2018, pg. 163.)

If one doubts the gap between rich and poor is widening, we have only to look at how one-percenters spend their money.  Paul Allen, former titan at Microsoft, owns a $200 million yacht that is supplied with a submarine, a screening room and two helicopters. (Click)  Our president lives in Versailles-like splendor at Mara Lago.  There, he escapes what he deems to be the squalor of the White House and sends his property tax bill to the public.   (Click)

As Atlas points out, the super wealthy are approaching a profligacy akin to Caligula’s Roman Empire. (Ibid. pg. 163.)  What they don’t spend for personal aggrandizement, they stash away in tax havens.  Contrary to what we ordinary citizens are told, the money doesn’t “trickle down.”(Click)

There’s nothing illegal about this bonfire of egos.  Nor will it ever be, as long as the rich splash money on political campaigns, making themselves defacto landlords of the Congress. (Click)

When the super wealthy squander money for more than they need and for prices beyond the object’s intrinsic value, they might want to consider other options.  Instead of owning multiple palaces, while veterans sleep on the streets; instead of investing millions in antique cars, while the unemployed walk to find jobs, let them consider this:  for $45 a month, they can sponsor a child in Afghanistan.  In fact, for the price of one Salvador Mundi, they can sponsor almost every child in that country.  (Ibid pg. 163).  In my opinion, the mega rich should stop thinking small and begin thinking large.  

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2 Comments
  1. Maggi White February 19, 2018 at 10:38 am Reply
    I totally agree. I recommend a book, the DIVIDE, Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets by Jason Hickel. More than 4 billion people live in poverty, or 60 percent of the human race. He defies the standard narrative as to why.
    • Caroline Miller February 28, 2018 at 8:31 am Reply
      Love book referrals. I shall look it up. Thanks.

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Contact Caroline at

carolinemiller11@yahoo.com

Portland, Oregon author Caroline Miller had distinguished careers as an educator, union president, elected official and artist/advocate.

Her play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, was performed at the Post5 Theatre, Portland, OR, January/February 2015

Caroline published a serialized novelette, Marie Eau-Claire, on the website, The Colored Lens.  She also published the story Gustav Pavel,  a parable about ordinary lives, choice and alternate potential, on the website Fixional.co.

Caroline has published four novels

  • Ballet Noir
  • Trompe l’Oeil
  • Gothic Spring
  • Heart Land

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